Schlock-Optic
KOJAK — SEASON 4: More Than Just Another Cop Show, Baby
Apr 30th
How much do you know about Kojak? If you’re a neophyte, like Your Humble Reviewer was prior to sitting down with Season 4 of this show, your knowledge is probably limited to a few basic facts: it was a cop show from the 1970’s with Telly Savalas in which he ate the occasional lollipop and More >
THE HUNGER GAMES: The Lighter, Audience-Friendly Side Of Dystopian Fears
Apr 27th
Big box office hits are often fascinating to follow — not always because of the film itself but because of the inevitable controversy that comes in the wake of massive success. The most recent example as of this writing is the film version of Suzanne Collins’ novel The Hunger Games. It was inevitable this film More >
ACT OF VALOR: Plenty Of Valor, Not Enough “Act”
Apr 23rd
If nothing else, you have to give the makers of Act Of Valor credit for an excellent marketing hook. They made a movie about Navy Seals with real Navy Seals as the stars (and the coöperation of the military, no less). Unfortunately, despite this clever hook and a nice technical sheen, Act Of Valor doesn’t More >
Digi-Schlock: THE NURSES COLLECTION (Shout! Factory 2-DVD Set)
Apr 20th
The first wave of Shout! Factory’s releases from Roger Corman’s New World/Concorde stable of films covered a lot of obvious horror and sci-fi stuff: Death Race 2000, Piranha, Humanoids From The Deep, etc. As they’ve continued, they’ve gotten into the stuff the hardcore fans really obsess over, a diverse range of slightly lesser known material More >
CANDY STRIPE NURSES: Candy Is Dandy But Nurses Are Quicker
Apr 19th
This film represents the end of the early era of New World Pictures. Candy Stripe Nurses wasn’t the last film about nurses they would release (that was Don Edmonds’ Tender Loving Care) but it was the last nurse film that was produced by Julie Corman, who had made a lengthy and successful series out of More >
THE YOUNG NURSES: The Earnest, Mellow Side Of Sexploitation
Apr 18th
If there’s a film that qualifies as the “modest but worthwhile” entry of the New World Pictures nurse-flick series, it would be The Young Nurses. Though it hits all the right New World Pictures exploitation marks — a little action, a lot of nudity, a decent helping of left-leaning social commentary — it’s a bit More >
NIGHT CALL NURSES: Paging Dr. Kaplan, Exploitation Flick Surgeon
Apr 17th
Jonathan Kaplan is one of the unsung heroes of 1970’s exploitation filmmaking. He’s mostly remembered today for his mainstream directing career, including the cult fave Over The Edge and the Oscar-winning The Accused, but he got his start doing a string of lively, smartly-directed exploitation flicks like Truck Turner and White Line Fever. In these More >
PRIVATE DUTY NURSES: Odd Woman Out At The Corman-Flick Hospital
Apr 16th
When Roger’s Corman’s fledgling outfit New World Pictures hit box office gold with The Student Nurses, it was inevitable that a sequel would follow. Its blend of sex, light humor and quasi-feminist themes was perfect for the era and, better yet, something that could easily be replicated. As a result, another four official New World-produced More >
Digi-Schlock: THOU SHALT NOT KILL… EXCEPT (Synapse Blu-Ray/DVD Combo Pack)
Apr 12th
Despite being aimed at technophiles, the blu-ray format is also producing a lot of impressive material for fans of exploitation filmmaking. Indeed, high-definition video has made it possible for b-movie buffs to see films known for a battered and bruised visual style in a whole new light. Synapse Films is one of the best companies More >
THOU SHALT NOT KILL… EXCEPT: The Unspoken Allure Of Low-Budget, High-Ambition Exploitation
Apr 9th
Viewers accustomed to sleek Hollywood movies often have a hard time with low-budget genre fare because the gap between the filmmaker’s resources and what they want to achieve is too much for them to process. However, what happens in that gap is where the magic lies for the true-blue fan of exploitation cinema. A big More >
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